Ferrer outlasts Murray to crack the big four (ROLAND GARROS)

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Ferrer outlasts Murray to crack the big four

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

By David Tutton

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David Ferrer executed his game-plan to perfection, wearing down Andy Murray on Suzanne Lenglen Court to win 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2 in 3 hours 45 mins and seal a first-ever appearance in a French Open semi-final, where he faces Rafael Nadal. The Spanish sixth seed was a picture of consistency all match long, in contrast to the British no.4 seed who hit 59 unforced errors in a wasteful performance that saw him fail to reach a sixth consecutive Grand Slam.
Watching Murray is to see a perfectionist at work. A man possessed with winning, the fourth member of the 'Big Four' is his own harshest critic, and misfiring all match long, the Scot had a harrowing afternoon. Ferrer is a frustrating man to face, even for the most mild-mannered player. The Spaniard's preferred method of winning is suffocation, squeezing the life out of his adversaries, rarely going for winners and not attacking unless the time is just right. The man from Valencia keeps hitting, long and relentlessly, until his opponent cracks, as Murray did too often today.
Murray falls into Ferrer trap
Ferrer is hard to beat because he plays the percentage game – brilliantly – keeping his unforced error count down to a strict minimum, and on clay this carefully thought-out tactic is more than enough to beat all but the very best.
He had not dropped a set all tournament, and he lured Murray into the same trap as his earlier victims. Undecided as to whether he should attack or defend, the Scot fell between two stools, and was caught in long rallies that ended more often than not when he committed an error. And when he did try to throw in a drop-shot or change things up, the ploy did not work.
The Spaniard had done his homework on Murray, and brought a 3-0 head-to-head record on clay into the match. He knew the Brit loves nothing more than defending before counterpunching, so played a waiting game of his own. Crucially, the Scot's service was not giving him a platform and he was broken twice in the first set, at 1-2 and then more significantly 4-5, nullifying the good work he had done to get back into the set with a break of his own. The second set was the same story in reverse: Murray broke Ferrer twice only to hand back the advantage in the very next game as the Scot's seemingly uncharacteristic errors become ever more commonplace.
Rain break turns the tie
A tie-break in that second set, and with drizzle beginning to fall, Murray found the form that had carried him to five consecutive Grand Slam semis. At last he went on the offensive, properly and wholeheartedly, and snatched the decider 7-3 to level the match. With the wind well and truly in his sails, Murray held to open the third set, but then came perhaps the turning point of the match. Drizzle became rain and the play was suspended. When the pair returned after the break, it was as if Murray had forgotten that he had seized the initiative, and we were back to the script of the first two sets. Break followed break until Ferrer grabbed his third of the set to win it 6-3.
The match had turned definitively in the Spaniard's favour and he was ruthless in putting Murray away in the fourth set. To his credit, the Scot went for his shots more, but Ferrer was now full of confidence, chasing everything down and, whisper it quietly, even hitting the odd winner of his own. He broke Murray twice early in the set, raced to a 4-1 lead and saw it out to make it through to the final four of a major for the first time in his 12-year career. And for the first time in six Slams, Murray was out before the semi-final stage, making his hold on "big four" status more tenuous than before.